Possession and Bag Limits

For big game and turkey, your license is good for the harvest of just one animal. Small game licenses are different in that they are good for numerous species and allow you to harvest several animals from each species as long as you stay within bag and possession limits.

A bag limit is the number of a single species you can harvest in a single day. The possession limit is the number of a single species you can have in your possession at one time; it is a combined total of your daily take and anything you have stored at home. As you can see in the examples below, the bag and possession limits vary by species.

Your daily bag limit counts toward your possession limit, so if you have 9 dusky grouse in your freezer at home, you must consume at least one of them before you can harvest another one. If you were hunting chukar and had 9 birds already at home in storage, you would only be legally able to harvest 3 more, even though your daily limit is 4.

Sometimes bag and possession limits mix different species, as is the case with squirrels. Your daily bag limit is 5 of each species, so you can harvest up to 10 squirrels a day so long as 5 are pine squirrels and 5 are fox squirrels. Having 4 pine and 6 fox would be a violation of your daily bag limit for fox squirrel.

It is very important to know these limits as well as keep track of what you have in storage. Many first-time hunters confuse daily limits with possession limits or neglect to check the regulations at all. All of these limits are printed in the small game brochure, and it is your responsibility to know what they are. It is strongly advised that you carry a copy of the brochure with you in the field so you always have that information at your fingertips.